Photography and Hiking the Sunny Island of Madeira
Madeira, if you are looking for Sun, sand and lovely beaches, you don’t have to venture out to the Caribbean or to the Luxury Islands of Maldives. Situated in the north Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal is a beautiful and a famous island with its all year around summer weather and tropical fauna abound, tends to be busy with visitors.
Harnessing the Solar, Wind and Sea power
Madeira is also a beautiful Island with lots of scenic spots that can be a visual treat to your eyes and your camera, so here is our usual map plot of the scenic locations on the island followed by a photo essay of most of the locations we visited during our week stay.
Ponta de São Lourenço Trail
This trail is part of the national parks and located on the eastern tip of the Island in Canical and a very good spot for Photography.
Beautiful Cliff faces in Madeira
This is a very beautiful trail that’s not to be missed, the path is not too steep and the views along the path were one of the best we had in the Island.
Views on the Ponta de São Lourenço walk
The trail starts at the Ponta de São Lourenço car park (32.743192, -16.701145) and all the way to the lighthouse viewpoint, it’s a total of 9km return and has a max elevation of approx 120m.
Enjoying the view on the Ponta de São Lourenço walk
Its normally windy on the trail, but the weather will be balmy and on a good sunny day it helps to keep you cool on the walk, good shoes are recommended as the path is mud and gravel on most stretches, have a large bottle of water and sun screen.
Views on the Ponta de São Lourenço walk
There are lots of curious and colourful rock formations due to the volcanic origin of the island, you also have access to the beach along parts if the trail if you wish to have a dip or a swim in the cool blue waters.
“In Life, It’s Not Where You Go, It’s Who You Travel With”
Start early in the morning or after 2pm to avoid the midday sun, WalkmeGuide has many more such walks in the Island with maps and good info.
25 Fountains
Calheta levada das 25 fontes risco Walk
One of the famous walks on the Island and a busy one too, the walk takes you through narrow tree covered paths and slippery rocks and you reach the waterfall that feels like a 25 different sections of water falling from the mountains and hence the name.
Along the wet trail
Its slippery and wet and rugged, watch your step along the way.
The views along the walk is gorgeous
Birds are friendly and come to you in search of food.
Porto Moniz Lava Pools
Porto Moniz Lava Pools
Lava pools in the village of Ponto Moniz (32.868882, -17.170439) are swimming pools naturally formed by volcanic lava and filled with clear sea water. A nice walk around the area and has good photo opportunities.
The sea spray was unavoidable and finally just gave in and just clicked
Drive along to Sexial for some scenic spots, one of the lunch spots we picked on the way
Banana trees in full bloom in Madeira city
Driving around in Madeira
Madeira is a small island and is easy to drive, the best way to get to most of the scenic spots and far to reach places is on a car, but the roads are very narrow, hilly and unpaved in certain interior sections, we were lucky that we rented a small car as managing anything bigger would have been a challenge.
Narrow streets will be a challenge for bigger cars
Where to stay in Madeira
Even though it’s a little island place, there are plenty of options to stay from luxury hotels near the beach front to beautiful AirBnb houses and apartments, we stayed in a very nice house south of the Island with a beach view and a sun terrace.
Our AirBnb accommodation with a view
Madeira being a small Island has so much to offer and lot of scenic spots and walks that can keep you occupied for more than a week, drive around, walk to scenic spots, watch the sunrise and sunset from scenic viewpoints and this place does not disappoint you, Madeiran homemade wines and liqueur is famous and we saw fruit liqueur made of any fruit you can name.
